


Caged Birds

by OnyxMidnight



Category: RWBY
Genre: Blood, Dark, Gore, Hopeful Ending, Mentions of past abuse, Multi, Other tags to be added, Panic Attack, Reunions, The author is merciless, Torture, Trauma, scientific experiments, traumatized characters, very dark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:21:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27663970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnyxMidnight/pseuds/OnyxMidnight
Summary: What if the battle of Haven had gone differently? What if Salem’s people had not only managed to escape, but also taken Qrow with them?Now Qrow is facing a fate worse than death in Watts’s sadistic hands and RWBY and JNR are desperate to save him. But they can’t. The only one who can has been running from both her brother and their enemy for almost two decades and has made sure that she isn’t trusted by any of them. For Qrow, she’s willing to face her demons while trying to keep her identity as the Spring Maiden a secret. But what will happen when she’s captured as well? Will they be able to put everything aside and escape with their lives and sanity? Or will Watts break them forever?
Relationships: Qrow Branwen & Raven Branwen, TBA - Relationship
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a redo of a work I had done previously in RP format on Tumblr and reposted here. I have since deleted it. The original can still be found on Drunkscythmaster, Nevermoretheravenreturns, and thedappermadscientist.   
> I decided to rewrite it as a story in order to explore the full potential it has and really get into it in a way the previous format wouldn't allow. So this will be darker, deeper, and grittier than the original.  
> Enjoy it, I certainly am.

Raven paced as the wannabe heroes argued. She was trying hard not to panic and doing a bad job of hiding it. Qrow was in the hands of the enemy. It was supposed to be simple: send Salem’s fucking foursome after Qrow, and while his semblance took away any advantage they would have hoped to have she and Vernal would grab the relic and run like hell. Instead Qrow was captured, Vernal was dead, and the relic was still in the damned vault. She should have just grabbed it and run, instead of letting Yang stop her with the news that Qrow’d been taken. She tried so very hard not to care about anyone but herself, and she failed every damn time. She failed, and now Qrow was in danger. Maybe she really was just an omen of destruction.  
She could run and hide but never escape, and everything always seemed to pull her back into Ozpin’s mess. She didn’t want any part of this. She was done being that bastard’s collateral damage. She just wanted to be free.  
But she was the Spring Maiden. She was Raven Branwen. She should have known better. Her life was a series of cages and she could move between them, but never escape. She’d learned that the hard way. She needed to save her brother, but if she did, everything would be at risk. She looked around, trying to focus, and spotted Harbinger on the table. Apparently Hazel hadn’t felt a need to grab it. She reached out and took it. Qrow would need that when they found him. If he was still in fighting shape. But she couldn’t think like that.  
“Mom!” Yang’s sharp tone broke her train of thought and she looked over. The teens were staring at her. How long had they been trying to get her attention?  
“What?” She kept an arrogant tone, a shield against the tempest of her inner thoughts and the panic that Qrow was in the hands of the enemy. He was still alive. She would feel it if he was dead, just like she would feel it when they started torturing him. Because she was certain that was going to be next. It was more surprising that they hadn’t already started. She couldn’t go down that rabbit hole, though. She had to stay focused. Qrow was far more clever than most gave him credit for, and unlike her, Salem’s forces had no idea what he was truly capable of.  
“Don’t you have any ideas? You have a bond to Uncle Qrow.” Yang was still pissed at her, that much was clear, but it didn’t matter.  
Raven nearly laughed. “Ideas? I have plenty of ideas. But ideas don’t mean much in this kind of situation. We need information, this isn’t something we can run into blindly.”  
“So what do we do? You know more about Salem’s people than we do,” Ruby was clearly struggling to stay calm and collected, like a leader should in this kind of situation. She was so much like her mother that it hurt.  
“Really? I thought this little gang had something better than a half-assed plan.” Ruby flinched, Yang growled, but Raven refused to let it get to her. She knew she was taking her anger out on the wrong people, but she didn’t have an enemy in front of her to rip apart. “She’s stronger than we are.”  
“We know that,” Yang sounded like she wanted to yell, but as she had in the vault’s chamber, she kept her temper. “Dad said that we have to work around problems, not necessarily fight through them.”  
Raven made herself roll her eyes. She could keep up the facade she’d built over nearly two decades or she could break down. She wished Tai were here, but he wasn’t, and she couldn’t involve him.  
“Why don’t you get Mr. Xiao Long? You guys were all on a team, right?” The gangly blond one spoke up. “We need everyone we can get.”  
Raven shook her head, which set Yang off. “Why not get Dad? He’d be more useful than you’re being right now! He’d actually want to help Uncle Qrow.”  
She gave Yang a hard look. “I don’t want to get my brother killed or worse. Leaving your father on Patch for now is the best decision. Mistral isn’t safe, not with most of its defences gone, and gods only know what kind of shape Qrow will be in by the time we get to him. We need a safe place.”  
“But we should still let him know what’s going on,” Ruby said. “That way he can get ready for Uncle Qrow to recover there.”  
“Unless you’re too scared to go face him too,” Yang said.  
“Now isn’t the time,” Raven growled. She would never admit it was true. But Qrow… for her brother, she had to step up. She knew that in spite of everything, all the painful words between them, the betrayal and abandonment on both sides, if she were the one in Salem’s hands, he would stop at nothing to get her back.  
“Considering you’re the reason Ruby got hit with a fireball you could be a little nicer,” the hyper ginger spoke up.  
“Not to mention the fact that you kidnapped me and kicked me in the face,” Schnee added, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked to her team. “Why are we trusting her again?”  
“I’m regretting that one less with every word that comes out of your mouth,” Raven drawled. “I don’t care if you trust me or not,” she spoke over the heiress’s angry sputtering. “I really don’t. But we need to get this figured out now, and the only person with all the information is also the most useless.” She tilted her head to indicate Ozpin’s new host.   
“Hey, Oscar hasn’t done anything wrong!” The gangly one jumped to the boy’s defense.  
“Yet,” she replied. “Soon enough Ozpin will be all that’s left, and you’ll all just be pawns in a game.” Oscar took a step back, and Ruby moved between her and the rest of them.  
“Enough! Uncle Qrow is in danger and we have to get him back,” she said, her voice taking on a leader-like quality that Raven had always associated with Summer. “And to do that, we have to work together.”  
“But Raven has a bond to Qrow, couldn’t she just go after him?” Ginger spoke up again. “Plus the whole bird thing.”  
“I can’t just run into Salem’s forces on a whim,” Raven replied. “If I get caught, you’re all done for.”  
“And people say I have an inflated sense of self-importance,” Schnee remarked in a dry tone.  
Raven glanced at Yang, then sighed and let the maiden power show in her eyes. The wannabe heroes gasped and took a step back.  
Ruby stared. “But… I thought Vernal was the Maiden?”  
“So did Cinder, and Qrow,” Raven replied, blinking and letting the light vanish. “She’s been my decoy since the power became mine.” Out of the corner of her eye, she could tell that Yang wanted to say something, probably about how she’d gotten the powers. But her daughter would never understand. It had been mercy, a mercy that the girl had begged for over and over until Raven gave in and granted it. Vernal had been the Maiden’s friend, and she was supposed to be the one to get the powers. She’d agreed to take on the burden, knowing full well what she was getting herself into, unlike most of the people to inherit them. But it hadn’t worked out that way. “That’s why I have to be careful. I can’t let Salem find out. I’ve escaped her twice already, I doubt she’ll allow it a third time.”  
“What?” Right, she hadn’t mentioned that to Yang.  
“That’s a story for another time. Right now we need to focus on Qrow. I’m sure we could arrange a trade, hand over Ozpin.”  
“We’re not giving Salem Oscar,” the gangly one said. “And he is still Oscar, he’s not Ozpin.”  
“I’m sure she’ll give him a quick death instead of a slow spiral into obscurity within his own mind,” Raven argued. “It’s a far more merciful fate.”  
“And you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?” Yang’s words and tone in that moment owed far more to Qrow than Tai or Summer.  
“When you’ve had someone begging for you to kill them so they don’t have to face down a primordial evil, we can talk. Until then, let’s focus on the issue at hand.” Why were they still arguing? Why was she letting them argue? If Ozpin wasn’t going to be forthcoming with the information they needed to save someone he pretended to care about, then she would have to force him. She put a hand on her sword and took a step forward when sudden pain radiated through her body, coming from her bond with Qrow, a phantom of what he was feeling. She gasped as her knees buckled, but she forced herself to stay upright and fight down the panic.   
“Raven?” Ruby asked, her big silver eyes full of concern.  
“It's Qrow. I can feel his pain through my bond to him,” she replied. “I don’t know what they’re doing to him, but we have to act now.” Even if that meant acting alone.

  
-0-

  
Qrow moaned as he started to come around. Everything hurt, and his head felt full of fog, but details started to come back to him. There had been a battle at Haven. The White Fang, Cinder, Hazel, and Cinder’s little flunkies had been there. Raven had been there. That caused an entirely new pain to go through him. She’d betrayed them. No, that wasn’t right. She’d explained it in the few seconds when their fight had taken them away from the group. She was going to double cross them. She’d staked the fight on his life, hoping his semblance would throw things in her favour, in his favour.  
But apparently that hadn’t quite worked. As things became clearer and clearer, he remembered getting thrown by Hazel, and that was when everything went black. That crazy bastard. So where was he now? Why was it cold? Why could he feel cool metal around his wrists and ankles? He made sure to keep his breathing even, to give away no hint that he’d regained consciousness. It was a skill he’d learned long ago, growing up with bandits. Often, if they thought he was down, they’d stop hurting him. Raven had never managed to master it like he had. Then again, they’d liked her more. He was lying on a hard, rough surface. Felt like stone. Was he still in Haven? But no, the floors hadn’t been this rough. He opened his eyes slightly, just enough to get a sense of what was going on around him without giving anything away to anyone who might be watching.  
The bars were the first thing he noticed. He was in a cage. Something had definitely gone horrifically wrong. But he forced his breathing and heartbeat to stay under control, forced himself to stay calm. There was no need to panic yet. Panic wouldn’t do anything, even though he was in a fucking cage. Where were Ruby and Yang? What about their rest of the teens? Were they in cages too? Had they lost?   
No, he had to stop thinking like that. That would only lead to panic, and panic wouldn’t help him or anyone else. He had to stay calm and figure this out. He’d escaped from shit like this before, and he’d keep doing it. He’d escape, he’d finish the mission, and then he’d go home for a rest.  
He looked around as much as he could without opening his eyes any wider, and he started to realize just how fucked he was. He could see lab equipment beyond the bars of the cage. The walls were a very dark stone, which told him nothing about where he was. But he could see an open door. He didn’t have Harbinger, which wasn’t a good sign, but that didn’t mean he was helpless. He just had to get out of the cell, grab something that could be used as a weapon from the lab equipment, and fight his way out while figuring out where the hell he was and where everyone else was.   
Qrow turned his attention back to the bars of the cell, fully opening his eyes since he couldn’t see or hear anyone else in the room. They weren’t too narrow. In his bird form he could fit through them. It was too bad there weren’t any windows that he could see. That would have made escaping much easier. He was wearing manacles around his wrists and ankles with long chains that anchored to the wall, but shifting would enable him to get free of those. He was injured, badly, but he would just have to push through it. There wasn’t another option and he definitely didn’t want to be subjected to the lab equipment.  
He shifted, agony making him dizzy and spots clouded the edges of his vision. But he just had to make it through the bars and then he could shift back and get out. Just a little farther and he could make it back to his nieces. That thought galvanized his will more than anything else and he forced himself to get airborne. He’d pull in his wings and dive through the bars, giving himself the momentum to hit the ground running.  
But as his wings passed the threshold, he was seized by an electric current that froze him. He couldn’t even cry out as he fell to the floor and felt bones in his right wing snap.  
Then he heard footsteps, and saw Watts enter the room, looking down at him with an inhuman smile.   
“Well now, this is interesting,” he said quietly as he smoothed his moustache. Dread overtook him as the disgraced scientist shut the door and pressed a button on a panel that made the current shut off. He struggled to move, to try to get away, but his muscles were still seized as Watts picked him up with little care for his injuries. “Very interesting.”


	2. Chapter 2

Qrow tried to peck Watts to make the other man let go of him, but he still hadn’t regained control of his muscles. The scientist examined him like he was a bug under a microscope for a long moment before opening the cell and dropping him back in. He managed to utter a cry of pain, but that was all.   
“I’ve never heard of a semblance that enables such a transformation,” Watts mused as he began to solder a fine wire mesh between the bars of the cell. Qrow wouldn’t be able to escape. “I’ve also heard very little about your semblance in general. Is that what made Ozpin choose you as a spy? Are you some type of faunus?” He clearly didn’t expect an answer as he worked away. “How long can you hold that form?” Other questions were asked, but Qrow stayed silent, trying to ride out the pain as he regained control of his body and managed to shift back, ignoring the unnatural bend in his right arm.  
“Let me go, you fucking bastard,” he growled as he staggered to his feet. He knew there was no point in saying it, but the longer Watts spent gloating, the longer it would take before he started torturing Qrow. That meant Qrow would have more time to get information and make an escape plan. He could get free. He couldn’t think of any worse situations he’d been in, but if nothing else he could count on his semblance keeping him alive so he could suffer longer.  
Watts just raised a brow. “Or what? You’ll keep scowling at me?” He picked up a clipboard and started writing. “Now, I know we were supposed to kill you, per our agreement with your sister, but since she seems to have betrayed us, to no one’s surprise but Cinder’s I’m sure, I have some better ideas. Namely, I have some research I would like to continue and it’s been ages since I’ve had a decent test subject, let alone the potential for two.” So far Watts was living up to what Qrow knew about him. “While my interest has always leaned more toward robotics, I do have a certain interest in biochemistry. Your niece amputating Tyrian’s tail was actually part of what revived that interest.” He set the clipboard aside and picked up a gas mask. “I would say try not to resist, but I’ve had a bad week and watching futile struggles would be amusing.” Watts put the mask on before spraying something into the cell.   
Qrow staggered to the back corner, as far away as he could get, but of course it wasn’t far enough. Watts was wrong though. and soon the fumes overwhelmed him and he fell to the floor, unconscious. 

-0-

“Wait, you can what?” Yang asked, eyes on her.  
Raven forced herself to stand up straight and raised a brow. “I guess your father left out some information when he told you about my semblance.” Her daughter just gave her a flat look instead of rising to the bait. “The bonds my semblance make enable me to feel certain things that the people I’m bonded to feel. Namely fear and pain.” Perhaps she could have gotten more than that, if she’d bothered working on developing her semblance at all. But she hadn’t, because she didn’t want her semblance to be more of a liability than it already was. The tribe leader before her had called it her greatest weakness, to be forced to rely on others for her semblance to work. She shut down that tiny part of her mind that reminded her of Tai and Summer’s arguments to the contrary. She didn’t need that running through her head now. She had to focus.  
“What are they doing to him?” Ruby asked, seeming to shrink in on herself.  
“I don’t know,” Raven replied, running a hand through her hair. She had to do something. She was still exhausted and aching from her fight with Cinder. That damned Grimm arm had done more damage than she would have liked. “But if we don’t act fast…”  
“She’ll play with him, like a cat plays with a bird.” That wasn’t Oscar talking, though it was his mouth that moved. Raven’s eyes glowed as she cast Ozpin a murderous look. “You know better than most how she operates. And as you’ve told them at least something of your semblance, they wouldn’t need much more incentive to torture him.”   
Her fault. It was her fault. The words kept swirling around her mind. “Then do something. You wouldn’t help me, you wouldn’t help Summer, Gods know you’ve done nothing for Tai over the years except take away people he loves. Qrow has been nothing but blindly loyal to your lost cause. You owe him this.” Her hand was on her sword hilt. “He gave up everything for you.”  
Ozpin’s expression was hard. “He knew what he was getting into.”  
“No, he didn’t. None of us did, not really!” She gripped her sword hilt as she protested, years of nightmares and fear in her voice. “You only told us what you wanted us to know, and we paid that price, over and over again.” She stepped back, shaking her head. “You just sat there and watched and waited, and I don’t think you even know what you’re waiting for.” She turned to Ruby and Yang. “One of you needs to warn Tai.”  
Ruby stepped forward. “I’ll go.”  
Raven nodded and opened a portal to him. Despite how long it had been, it was so easy. “You have two minutes.” She nodded and hurried through while Raven held the portal open.  
“So, what’s the plan?” The quiet one beside the hyper ginger asked.   
“If Raven is careful she may be able to scout the location. The Grimm don’t pay attention to birds, and the red eyes will help her blend in with them. I doubt Salem’s people would be able to recognize her as quickly as Yang did,” Ozpin said.  
“I never agreed to be involved in one of your schemes,” Raven snapped.  
“Raven?” A very familiar voice. Too familiar.  
She froze for a long moment before turning around. Ruby had come back, but she’d returned behind her father.  
Tai stared at her, years of hurt and heartache in his eyes, and other emotions she didn’t want to put a name to.   
Raven forced herself to turn away. “I thought I said for you to stay on Patch.” She looked at the wall, the floor, anywhere but him. There was a heavy moment of silence.  
“And you couldn’t tell me yourself.”  
“Don’t start,” she snapped. “Qrow is danger.”  
Another heavy pause. “Then why are you still here?” There was iron in his tone that made her turn and look at him. His blue eyes, which had always reminded her of the open, fathomless ocean, were like sapphires.   
“Excuse me?” She snarled, taking a step toward him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Yang start toward them, but the Belladonna girl stopped her.  
“You said Qrow is in danger,” Tai refused to back down. “You know he would drop everything to save you if you’d been caught. And I know he’s helped you over the years, even though he doesn’t tell me anything about your little ‘talks’. I just pick him up from the drunk tank afterwards.”   
Raven took a step back, eyes glowing. “He made his choice, and he chose Ozpin.”  
“He thought he was keeping everyone safe, including you.” Tai’s eyes flashed gold. “You owe him this, if nothing else, and I shouldn’t have to tell you this. I remember when it used to be the two of you, standing alone against the world, even if you don’t.” He looked disappointed in her, and it cut far deeper than she’d expected. “But when have you ever listened to me? I’ll head to Vale so you’ll have easy access to the hospital, Gods only know what’ll happen to him before we get him back.”  
Raven wanted to say something cutting, something that would let her regain control of the situation, but she couldn’t speak, could only watch as he gave his daughters a quick, reassuring smile and walked back through the portal. No one said anything, but she could feel everyone’s eyes on her. Tai was wrong. She did remember. She remembered very well when Qrow was the only one she trusted, the only one she could count on. He was wrong…  
So why did his words hurt so much?

-0-

When Qrow woke up, he was in even more pain than last time, and he had no idea how long he’d been out. He was back in chains, though his broken arm had been splinted, and there was a needle in the crook of his elbow pumping gods only knew what into his body. He felt sluggish, his mind hazy, and it took a few moments for him to realize that he wasn’t alone. Watts was in the cell with him. Qrow tried to lunge at the bastard, only to be pulled up short by the chains. The bastard smirked as he lost his balance and fell, injuries screaming in protest.   
“Let me go,” he snarled.  
“I’m not interested in repeating conversations ad nauseam,” Watts drawled. “Now, while I’d like to think you have this figured out, I try not to overestimate my opponents. Should you give me any information that Salem would find useful, I will be more lenient.”  
“I’m not telling you anything.” He was a spy. People told him things, not the other way around. But Leo tricked you, a small, insidious part of his mind whispered. You told him where to find Raven and the Spring Maiden. Qrow forced that thought away. He had to focus right now.  
“Very well, we’ll do this the hard way,” Watts said, grinning slightly. “I do prefer that, anyway.” He smoothed out his moustache and walked out of the cell, returning with a hammer. “Now, your ability to shapeshift should indicate that you’re a faunus of some kind, however, there are no records of such abilities and your medical records don’t indicate any of the usual markings on your body, or that it’s your semblance.” Had Raven not told them about the shapeshifting? Cinder seemed to know, but then she could have just been making a shitty bird joke, and Leo had seemed surprised when he saw her. “So tell me, how is it that you can shapeshift?”  
Qrow bit the inside of his cheek as he tried to avoid giving the bastard the satisfaction of a sarcastic reply. He could do this. He’d grown up with bandits, he’d been a professional huntsman and spy for twenty years. He could handle being injured.  
“Very well.” There was no time to react before Watts brought the hammer down on his leg. The bones snapped and he couldn’t hold back a cry of pain. “Not hollow. A pity, but it should keep you from getting any ideas.” There was a glint of satisfaction in his eyes, but Qrow could admit that he tended to bring that out in people. If he hadn’t known the man was one of Salem’s people, the lack of any other emotion on his face would have been disturbing. It was clear Watts had done this kind of thing before.  
“Do whatever you want, Raven isn’t going to come for me.” He recalled Watts’s earlier words, implication that he would add her to his collection of lab rats. He hoped she stayed the hell away. “Where are we, anyway?”  
“I keep forgetting how few people have been here,” Watts said. “You are in Evernight Castle.” Qrow froze. “Yes, I mean it. As for how we got here, well, it’s a simple matter of hiding from Atlesian security, which is laughably easy for the right person.”   
“So I take it you’re the one who hacked Ironwood’s robots during the fall of Beacon? And how Cinder found out about the girl?” Qrow forced himself to work through the pain as the sadist began setting his broken leg. He needed to gather as much information as he could. When he broke out, he could tell the others.  
“They did say you were clever,” Watts remarked. “I also gave Cinder the programs that allowed her to control the matches during the festival. It was… shockingly easy to do, so I can’t even brag about it.”  
“I’ll make sure to tell that to Yang when I see her again,” he promised in a low tone.   
“I’m sure your dear niece will want to avenge you and herself, but I don’t intend to be involved in fighting if I don’t have to. I’m more of a background figure in these kinds of things, you see.” He stepped back and looked at his work. “However, we do have plans for you as soon as Salem is ready.”  
His blood ran cold. Right, Salem’s lair. Salem would be here. He had to keep focused, ignore the pain and the lingering drugs. He had to get out of here. “Oh yeah?”  
Watts smiled, a terrifying sight. “The lady and I have been working on a… special project. She believes it’s time you’ve had a change of heart.”  
“Not going to happen,” he snarled.  
Watts laughed. “You won’t have a choice in the matter, I’m afraid.”  
Qrow had to find a way out of this fast.


	3. Chapter 3

It was hard to tell how much time passed. There weren’t any clocks that he could see, though he knew there had to be some around the lab. The kids were probably worried and trying to plot a way to find him, though if he really was in Evernight, they wouldn’t know where to find him, and he doubted Ozpin would let them find out. It was something to be grateful for. They wouldn’t stand a chance of getting near this place, let alone staging a rescue. Raven would have been a better chance, but he couldn’t see her sticking around. She was probably halfway across Anima by now, heading to some hiding spot. If she was caught at this point, she would definitely be executed. Then Tai would be left with yet another empty grave. Maybe two, if he didn’t figure out how to escape.  
His semblance was the only reason he could think of to explain why Tyrian walked into the lab at that moment. He looked over at Qrow and laughed, that creepy, high-pitched sound as he sauntered over, metal tail flicking erratically behind him. “Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in,” he sang, still laughing all the while. “I never thought I’d see you again. Most don’t survive my poison.”  
Qrow looked away, pretending to be completely absorbed in the manacle around his wrist. As he’d thought, Tyrian grew irate.  
“But now I have a new tail, and I’ll make sure that little bitch doesn’t walk away next time.” His laughter took on a more sinister tone. “My lady has declared that she can’t be killed, but she never said she couldn’t be… missing a few pieces.”  
Qrow took as deep a breath as he could, still refusing to react, or even look at the faunus. The lock wasn’t a complicated one. If he managed to get his hands on any kind of lock pick, he could make short work of it. The electric barrier surrounding the cage would be more complicated, but he might be able to use his semblance to help with that. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Tyrian went over to a panel and flipped a switch. There was a slight hum he hadn’t noticed before. That would be useful. Tyrian returned and before Qrow could move he struck, his new metal stinger sinking deep into Qrow’s thigh. Qrow cried out, and this time he could feel the burn of the poison right away with the full dose, unlike last time. Tyrian twisted his stinger in the wound.   
“It’s rude to ignore people when they’re talking to you,” he snarled, ripping the stinger free. Blood immediately started pouring from the wound, soaking through Qrow’s pants as it became harder to breathe.  
“Tyrian,” Watts’s sharp voice cut through whatever Tyrian was going to say next. He looked annoyed as he prepared a syringe of pale pink liquid before going into Qrow’s cage and injecting him. Qrow gasped for breath as it became easier and the burning faded. “We need him alive for now.”  
Tyrian shrugged and laughed. “I knew you’d be back before he could die. I just wanted to remind him what it feels like.”  
“You’re making it difficult to run experiments. I need consistent conditions for good initial data,” Watts growled as he bandaged the wound.  
“I could stab him again,” Tyrian offered with a grin.   
“Don’t you have some crazy witch to worship?” Qrow asked.  
Tyrian lunged at him, only stopped by Watts. “How dare you speak of our Goddess that way!”   
“Tyrian, leave. He’s just trying to make you angry.” Watts sighed, as though dealing with people capable of exercising free will was exhausting. To him, it probably was. The man acted more like a robot than Jimmy. Tyrian glared at Qrow, who mustered a smirk. Watts basically pushed him out of the lab, and Qrow took the opportunity to painstakingly drag a set of tweezers into arm’s reach with his shoe. Watts retrieved the kit and put it on the counter. Qrow thought he was in the clear, until the scientist looked over at him. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice something missing?”  
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Qrow shrugged, the movement pushing the tweezers deeper into the splint. It’d hurt to get them out, but it’d be worth it.  
“I’m a man of science,” Watts replied, pulling out a syringe and filling it with a brilliant orange liquid. “A man of reason, of order. I know where everything in my lab, and I keep a strict inventory of each item.” He walked into the cell and tapped the syringe to bring air bubbles to the top before squirting them out. “So I know when anything has been used or moved, be it a computer monitor, a roll of gauze, or a pair of tweezers.” Qrow froze, silently damning his semblance for failing him as Watts stepped forward and injected the orange liquid into his arm. Qrow couldn’t fight it, and for a moment nothing happened.   
Then all at once, every single nerve in his body lit up with pure agony. He struggled to stay quiet, but couldn’t hold back a cry of pain, writhing painfully on the ground. It was like he was being crushed and burned alive all at once, cut slowly into ribbons. It was impossible to describe, except that it was agony.   
He didn’t know how long it took, but eventually the pain did fade to nothing, and he was left gasping for breath. He looked down at his body, but couldn’t see any injury that hadn’t already been there, any sign of damage, though now his previous level of pain felt downright comfortable.   
“What do you think?” Watts asked, but continued speaking before Qrow could say anything. “It’s a little number I’ve been developing for a few months now. It doesn’t cause any lasting damage that I’ve found, and it wears off completely twenty-four hours after the last dose. However, each additional dose causes double the effect.” As he spoke, he refilled the syringe and smiled. “I’ve distilled pure pain into liquid form.” Qrow tried to move back, but his limbs wouldn’t work right, between his injuries and exhaustion he felt. Watts chuckled, a dark sound, and injected more of the orange liquid into his arm.  
This time, Qrow screamed, his body contorting as it tried to escape itself.

-0-

Raven grabbed onto the wall when the first wave of pain hit. She hadn’t expected it, grabbing onto the wall to keep her balance. What the hell were they doing to Qrow? A few minutes later it faded, and she drew her sword.  
“Wait, we can’t act rashly,” Ozpin said, moving in front of her.   
Raven glared at him as she stood straight, looking down at him from her full height, her eyes glowing. “One more word and I will slit your fucking throat.” Her tone was terrifyingly calm.   
“But what are you going to do?” Ruby stepped forward. She looked afraid, but Raven was certain it had nothing to do with her and everything to do with Qrow’s predicament.   
Tai was wrong. Raven did remember when she and Qrow had been an unbeatable force, an inseparable unit ready to take on a world that hated them and make their place. They’d stood together even as the tribe had tried to tear them apart and turn her against him. Harbinger and Omen, Doom and Destruction. Qrow and Raven. All the names, all leading to inevitable fates, no matter how hard they tried to run. She clutched her hilt until her knuckles went white. All those cold winters, colder words. Starving and sore, it had just been them. Qrow was the one who would wake her from nightmares, and more often than not he would take the heat when they got caught stealing food.   
Where had it all gone so wrong? Slowly, she’d felt him drift away, farther and farther from her and closer to the Wizard, no matter how tightly she tried to cling to him. They had come to Beacon to learn how to kill, to gain the skills and knowledge they needed to take over the tribe and be free. Her in the lead, Qrow at her right hand. No one would be able to threaten them. They would be safe, they would live by their own rules.  
None of that had happened. Instead they were broken shadows of who they’d been, and far from who they’d wanted to be in their prime.  
Raven started to answer Ruby, but another wave of agony hit, the echo through the bond enough to make her knees buckle, and she grabbed the back of the sofa to keep from falling. She took deep breaths and cursed her semblance. Every single time someone she had a bond with was hurt or afraid, she felt an echo of it. When Yang stood against a pack of beowolves as a child, she’d felt her terror and sent Qrow to check on her. When her arm had been cut off, when Qrow was in over his head and poisoned, when Tai was badly injured. When Summer bled out in her arms, she’d felt it, and felt the bond snap. She felt it all, and too often it was too late to do anything about it.  
“What’s happening to him?” Ruby asked, her voice cracking. Yang looked afraid as well. Raven forced herself to push the echoes aside and stand. Before anyone could stop her, she opened a portal to her brother and shifted as she went through.  
She wound up in a laboratory, on the opposite side of the room from her brother and Watts. Qrow’s harsh breathing had hidden the sound of her portal, so she hid behind a monitor, watching as the doctor walked away, laughing. She shifted and hurried over to the cage.  
“Stop!” He said, his voice hoarse. He must have been screaming. “You’ll be electrocuted.” He was a mess, bandaged with an arm and leg splinted, the whites of his eyes red with burst vessels, and his lips were tinted red as well. Raven opened another portal to him that let her inside the cage and she knelt beside him, pulling a pin out of her hair and starting to work on the locks. “You have to leave, he’ll get you.” Qrow pushed at her arm.  
Raven pinned him with a hard stare. “Not without you.” He let his head back and his eyes closed. Raven shook his shoulder, trying to ignore the panic creeping into her mind. “Open your eyes, damn you.”  
Qrow gasped in pain, but he did open his eyes. “Don’t let him get you.”  
“I’ll slit his throat and feed his blood to the Grimm,” Raven promised, trying to get him into a better position before drawing an ice blade. Picking the locks was taking too long. It didn’t matter if he still had the chains on when she brought him back. She just had to break them away from the wall.  
“As interesting as that sounds, I’m afraid I’ll have to pass.” Raven turned sharply and saw Watts leaning against the frame of the door. She’d have to take a risk. If she slashed open a portal against the wall and Qrow’s chains were in the middle, they might break when she closed it again. But when she raised her sword, a painful electrical current froze her in place, quickly draining her aura. “Now, really. I know you hold most of is low esteem, but you really shouldn’t underestimate a scientist in his own lab.”   
“Let her go!” Qrow tried to stand, but barely managed to sit up.  
“When I could have both of you at my mercy?” Watts chuckled out of her line of sight. “Hardly. And I know Salem is very interested in talking to Raven about what happened to poor Cinder.” Raven struggled to move, scream, do anything, but she couldn’t move at all. Where the hell were they? Qrow was trying to move again, his bandages becoming redder by the second. “I won’t bother trying to get near you. That would be foolish. But you’re not as smart as you think you are, and in just a few more seconds, you’ll pass out, and then you won’t be able to do anything.”   
He was right. She couldn’t breathe, every muscle frozen in place. Her vision was going dark. She heard Qrow yell her name as she blacked out.


End file.
